Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-08

ing with interest and enthusiasm and their
songs are heard all through the exercises, and
at the close they 60 away feeling they have
been on the Mount of Transfguration-tha
is live school, and it is characteristic of
live church. There is only one thing l have
against the Sabbath schools of this country,
and that is, they are too respectable. We
gather into our schools the children of the re-
nned, and the cultured, and the educated;
but alas for the great multitude
of the children of tho abandoned and
the lost! A few of them are gath
cred into our Sabbath schools; but what
about the 10000 destitute children of New
York and the score of thousands of destitute
children of Brooklyn around whom are thrown
no benign and heavenly and Christian infiu-
ences? 1t is a tremendous question, what is
to become of the destitute children of these
citiess We must either act on them or they
will act on US. We will either Christianize
them or they will heathenize us. 1t is ques-
ton not more for the Christian than for the
philanthropist and the statesman. Oh, if we
could have all these suffering little ones
gathered together, what scene of hunger
and wretchedness and rags and sin and
trouble and darkness! If we could see those
little feet on the broad road to death, which
Sui CudIlUy ouSho w ~ Ph>s'
ing the narrow path Of life; if we could hear
those voices in blasphemy, which ought to be
singing the praises Of God; if we could see
those little hearts, which at that age ought
not to be soiled with one unclean thought, be-
coming the sewers for every abomination; If
we could see those suffering little ones sacri-
feed on the altar of every iniquitous passion
and baptized with fire from the lava of the
y,it g uanpf
thou dream of hell" They are not always
going to be children They are coming up to be
the men and women of this country. That spark
of iniquity that might now be put out with
one drop of the water of life will become the
con1agration of every green thing that God
ever planted in the soul That which ought
to have been temple of the Holy Ghost will
become a SCARED and blistered ruin-every
light quenched and every altar in the dust.
That petty thief, who slips into your store
and takes a yard of cloth from your counter,
will become the highwayman of the forest, or
the burglar at midnight, picking the lock of
your money safe and blowing up your store
to hide the villainy. A great army, with
staggering step, and bloodshot eye, and
drunken hoot they are coming gathering
recruits from every grog shop and den OF
infamy in the land-to take the ballot box
and hurrah at the elections. The hard
knuckled fist of rufhanism will have more
power than the gentle hand of intelligence
and sobriety. Men, bloated, and with the
signature of sin burned in from the top of the
forehead to the bottom of the chin, will look
honest men out of countenance. Moral
corpses, which ought to be buried 100 feet
deep to keep them from poisoning the air,
will rot in the face of the sun at monday. In
dustry in her plain frock will be unappreci-
ated, while thousands of men will wander
around in idleness, with their hands on their
hips saying: "The world owes us a living"
0, what tremendous power there is in in
iquity when uneducated, and unrestrained
and unblanched it goes on concentrating, and
deepening, and widening and gathering mo-
mentum until it swings ahead with very
triumph of desolation, drowning like surges,
scorching like flames, crushing like rocksl
What are you going to do with this aban-
doned population of the streetss Will you
gather them in your churches. 1t is
not the will of your Heavenly Father
that one of these little ones should
perish. If you have ten respectable
children in your class, gather in ten that are
not respectable. If in your Bible class there
be twenty young men who have come from
Christian homes and elegant surroundings,
let those twenty young men 90 out and
gather in twenty more of the young men of
the city who are lost to God and lost to So
ciety. This outside population, unless edu-
Gated and restrained, will work terror in ages
that are to come. Years ago at New Orleans,
when the cholera was raging fearfully, a
steamboat put out just before nightfall
crowded with passengers who were trying to
escape from the pestilence. After the boat
had been out little while the engineer fell
with the cholera. The captain in consterna-
ton went down among the passengers and
asked: "Is there any one here who knows
anything about engineering" A swarthy
man replied: II am an engineer" "Well,"
said the captain, II would be very glad if
you would take charge of this boat" The
man went to the engine. The steamer moved
more rapidly until after while the captain
and some passengers were alarmed and they
went to see what was the matter and they
found that this was maniac engineer and that
he was seated on the safety valve; and as they
came to him, he said: II am commissioned OF
satan to drive this steamer to he'll, and he
f1ourished his pistol, and would not come
down. But after while, through some
stratagem, he was brought from his position,
and the lives of the passengers were saved.
Oh! my friends, that steamer had no such
peril as our institutions are threatened with,
if the ignorant and unrestrained children of
this land shall come up in their ignorance and
their crime to engineer our civil and religious
institutions, and drive them on the rocks.
Educate this abandoned population, or they
will overthrow the institutions of this land.
Gather them into your Sabbath schools. ]
congratulate you that many have been gath
cred. Go forth, teachers, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and on the coming Sab
baths may there be found gathered scores
and hundreds of these wanderers, and instead
of 1900 in the Sabbath school, we shall see
5000 or 1900, and the grace of God will come
down upon them, and the Holy Spirit will
bring them all into the truth.
Another characteristic of a live church is
one with appropriate architecture. In the
far west and amid destitute population, a log
church is very appropriate people living
in log houses But in communities where
people live in comfortable abodes, a church
uncommodious Or lacking in beauty is a
moral nuisance. Because Christ was born in
manger is no reason why we should wor-
ship him in a barn. Let the churches of
Jesus Christ be not only comfortable, but
ornate Years ago we resolved to have
comfortable church. We resolved that it
should be amphitheatrical in shape. The
prominent architects of the country, after
figuring on the matter good while, said that
such church would not be churchly, and
they would have nothing to do with the en-
terprise But after a while we found all
architect willing to risk his reputation. He
put up for us the first tabernacle, in amphi-
theatrical style. We liked it. All who came
liked it. This building followed in the same
style We believe it is appropriate and
adapted An angular church will have an
angular theology. The church of jesus
Christ ought to be great family
circle, the pulpit only the fireplace,
around which they are gathered in sweet and
domestic communion. But when our first
tabernacle went up, o, the caricature and the
soothing! They said: "It's a hippodrome!
It's holy circus! It's Talmage's theatre!"
But the Lord came down with power upon
that old building, and made it the gate of
heaven to great many. And this building
followed That we were right in persisting
in the style of architecture is proved by the
fact that now there are sixty or seventy
churches in the United States in the same
STYLE Indeed our tabernacle has revolution
lied church architecture in this country. A
live church must have commodious, COM
Portable, an adapted building. "How amiable
are Thy tabernacles, o Lord of hosts! l
would rather be q doorkeeper in the house Of